The end of the ignorance: ESU prof addresses another kind of apocalypse

Wednesday

Jan 23, 2008 at 12:01 AM

The apocalypse is upon us. But this actually is a good thing, according to a retired East Stroudsburg University professor who is preparing his third set of public lectures on the destiny of humankind.

DAN BERRETT

The apocalypse is upon us. But this actually is a good thing, according to a retired East Stroudsburg University professor who is preparing his third set of public lectures on the destiny of humankind.

"The etymology of 'apocalypse' does not mean the end of the world by any means," explained Peter Roche de Coppens, who retired from ESU's sociology department in 2005. "It means 'revelation of a hidden truth,' from the Greek, apokalyptein. It means the opening of the unconscious or the super-conscious."

In his view, human history has been building toward a new level of consciousness since the end of World War II. The process will be complete around 2050, and be triggered by an economic meltdown.

"It's going to come fast and hard, most likely because of the importance we have given money," he said. "When we're hit in the pocketbook, things will change in the most unbelievable way."

When forced by changing economic circumstances, human beings will stop cleaving to material values and seek out the spiritual, he believes. "It's a question of shifting from the material to the human," he said. "On all levels, we cannot go on like this."

The world is full of paradoxes, Roche de Coppens noted. "I interpret this to mean we're going through a major transformation and expansion of our consciousness," he said.

He cited the increasingly polar extremes of human existence in today's world. "The very best and the very worst are manifest at the same time," he said.

Roche de Coppens described the legions of people in the developing world who are dying of malnutrition or suffering without drinkable water. He juxtaposed this with the material wealth of industrialized nations.

"We have never had so much — in education, knowledge, money, technology, consumer goods and political and social freedom," he said. "And yet, we've never been more depressed and miserable."

Using another metaphor to describe humanity's spiritual evolution, Roche de Coppens said we are collectively graduating from adolescence into adulthood.

Roche de Coppens has been exploring and expanding on these ideas in books for 50 years, and in a recent series of public lectures titled "Essential Encounters."

The next set of five lectures in this series, "The Two Great Realms and Great Laws: That of Nature and that of Grace," will begin on Tuesday, Feb. 5, in Stroud Hall. It is the third year of the series.

Roche de Coppens will lead the first three sessions. Ray Starner, who is a senior vice president and financial adviser at Smith Barney and interested in religion and spirituality, will teach the fourth. Both will summarize the work in the fifth session.

The lectures will cover such topics as the importance of knowledge and wisdom, the clash between religion and science, the nature of paradoxes and contradictions, and the realms of nature and grace.

A recurring theme in the sessions is what Roche de Coppens calls the two great dimensions of human life. There is the outer, objective and material dimension, which is characterized by determinism and the universal laws studied by scientists. And then there is the inner, subjective, psychic one, which is characterized by freedom, free will and spirituality.

The two are linked. "The spiritual is the matrix of everything else. Everything comes from that," he said. "In a causal sense, that's where things begin."

Roche de Coppens sees his study of spirituality as trans-religious. "There are saints and sages all over the world in every tradition and every religion," he said, describing his religion of birth as Eastern Orthodox, but himself as a universalist in practice. "They really do have the same basic values."

Roche de Coppens taught at ESU for 35 years, with other stints at McGill University in Montreal and the Sorbonne in Paris. He has authored more than 65 books and writes for several newspapers in Canada and Italy. He is also the founder of "Soul Sculpture," a television program that has aired on Channel 13 for 17 years.